Friday, April 6, 2012

"Fake, but Accurate" Redux

NBC News, in their effort to 'promote' the Trayvon Martin story - and demonize George Zimmerman, aired on the Today program and the NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams, an edited version of the 911 call made by Zimmerman to the police that implied that Zimmerman was a racist - by deleting the question from the 911 dispatcher asking Zimmerman as to the race of the person he was calling about. Without that question, it appeared that Zimmerman was motivated by racism regarding his interest in Trayvon Martin.

On the storied "Today Show," NBC News told America Zimmerman said this on the 911 call:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. He looks black.

When the truth is that the unedited audio actually went like this:

Zimmerman: This guy looks like he’s up to no good. Or he’s on drugs or something. It’s raining and he’s just walking around, looking about. Dispatcher: OK, and this guy — is he black, white or Hispanic? Zimmerman: He looks black.

After the exposure of this effort to smear George Zimmerman, NBC issued a very tepid and weak apology for their attempt to mislead and defame Mr. Zimmerman. They want the issue to go away, but activism and bias like this by the media is not something that should be permitted to 'go away' without severe repercussions.

In late October 2004 - CBS News Senior Producer Mary Mapes acquired several documents which allegedly supported the meme that George W. Bush was not only negligent regarding his service attendance during his career with the Texas Air National Guard, failing to meet his service requirements, but that he received favoritism to avoid punishment for his failure to meet his service requirements. Dan Rather, then the anchor of the CBS Evening News and 60 Minutes II, aired the documents in an 'October surprise' hit piece intended to damage George W. Bush's reelection campaign.

Immediately, other aspects of the mainstream media jumped on the bandwagon against Bush - as they all believed that he received special treatment during his National Guard service.

However, there was a problem with the 'original documents' that Mapes had obtained - they were obviously fraudulent. Those 'originals' could not have been created in 1971-2 - they were instead created on a modern PC using Microsoft Word by someone out to smear President Bush and derail his campaign.

CBS Corp, and their News Division, were stung by their role in promoting these fake documents - yet, both Rather and Mapes stood by the documents - at one point admitting that while the documents themselves might be fake, they reflected the 'truth' about Bush's TANG service.

Ultimately, both were fired for their grossly unethical actions to create a story using fabrications for political purposes. The dismissals were also upheld in legal action that both took against the network claiming 'wrongful termination'.

Williams has been, since 2004, the managing editor of NBC News. And this was no mistake. It was a purposeful attempt to drive the narrative against Zimmerman. It is Williams’ job to see that the facts are reported rather than skewed. And the buck stops with him.

This is no isolated incident for Williams. He’s an ardent leftist who began his career by interning for Jimmy Carter. When Williams moderated a Republican debate in September 2011, he asked Rick Perry how he could sleep at night while implementing the death penalty as governor of Texas. After September 11, he implied that America’s “military swagger” provided the impetus for the attacks. He compared the bombing of Iraq to the U.S. military bombing of Japan in its indiscriminateness.

Williams once explained, “[NBC News has an] inordinate number of editors. Every word I write, before it goes on air, goes through all kinds of traps and filters, and it’s read by all kind of different people who point out bias.” He’s at the top of that food chain. And it’s his news department that helped ratchet up the Trayvon Martin story to the point of violence.

What NBC has done is even more reprehensible than that done by Rather / Mapes...because this was done to promote racial violence and racial differences. It goes far beyond just promoting an ideological bias that equally doesn't belong in the media.

All those responsible at NBC need to be terminated for their moral and ethical failure starting with Brian Williams and the producer who made the edits.

About Me

I've been commenting on various blogs and subscription sites since early 2002 - adding my observations, thoughts, and musings on local, state, and national politics, national security, international relations, the economy, and other topics interest me. Until 2009, I was most active on LittleGreenFootballs before being driven off. Since then, I've been fighting idiotarians on BillOReilly.com and other sites...